The present invention concerns easily removable treatment tubes from fabric treatment apparatuses in order to facilitate replacement of such rolls for treatment modification, cleaning, disposal, or any other desirable purposes. Such treatment tubes are generally hollow and may be coated with any standard fabric treatment surface, including sandpaper, diamond grit, wires, brushes, and the like. The ability to easily remove and either convert or dispose of such treatment tubes thus provides a significant time-savings and cost advantage to the manufacturer.
Materials such as fabrics are characterized by a wide variety of functional and aesthetic characteristics. Of those characteristics, a particularly important feature is fabric surface feel or xe2x80x9chand.xe2x80x9d The significance of a favorable band in a fabric is described and explained in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,918,795 and 4,837,902, both to Dischler, the teachings of which are both entirely incorporated herein by reference.
Favorable hand characteristics of a fabric are usually obtained upon conditioning of prepared textiles (i.e., fabrics which have been de-sized, bleached, mercerized, and dried). Prior methods of prepared-fabric conditioning have included roughening of the finished product with textured rotatably driven cylindrical rolls. Such roll treatments provide extremely efficient and rapid conditioning methods by permitting the treatment of a continuous web of fabric with a roughened surface. The cylindrically shaped rolls will contact substantial every area of the target fabric web, no matter the speed of the web over the rolls. Thus, these methods have proven to be efficient and cost-effective within the treated textile industry. Examples of such cylindrical roll treatments may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,300 to Dischler, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,973,359 to Spencer, both hereby entirely incorporated by reference. Processes such as sueding, sandind, napping, brushing (with soft or stiff bristles), and the like, are practiced with such cylindrical rolls.
Sueding and sanding both concern finishing woven fabrics by abrading one or both surfaces of the target fabric using sandpaper or a similarly abrasive material (i.e., diamond grit) to cut and raise the fibers of the constituent yarns in the fabric. Through such a treatment, a resultant fabric is obtained generally exhibiting a closely raised nap producing a soft, smooth surface texture resembling suede leather. Such operations are conventionally performed by a specialized fabric sueding or sanding machine wherein the fabric is passed under tension over one or more finishing rolls, covered with sandpaper or a similarly abrasive material, which are rotated at a differential speed relative to the moving fabric web.
Napping also concerns a surface-raising treatment for a target fabric. Such a treatment provides a fabric exhibiting a softer hand, improved drapeability, greater fabric thickness, and better overall durability. Napping machinery generally utilizes such rotatably driven cylinders including peripheral wire teeth, such as, normally, card clothing, over which the fabric travels under a certain amount of tension.
Such cylindrical rolls have been introduced within standard fabric treatment apparatuses through a relatively simple lay-in procedure with engagement to drive belts on either one or both ends of the roll with a locking mechanism to ensure substantially no movement from the laid-in position. However, such a method is, initially, quite cumbersome in that the rolls are generally of great weight and width and require large amount of manpower to maneuver out, through, and/or around the potentially delicate fabric treatment apparatus machinery. This has proven troublesome in the past when differing treatment surfaces are required for different fabric types; or when the treatment surface has become eroded or worn down sufficiently to prove ineffective in treating the target fabric surface; or any other necessity for exchanging, substituting, replacing, or otherwise removing such rolls have become imperative. A lighter weight, easier to maneuver, and easier to dispose of cylindrical treatment article would thus be of great benefit to the industry, particularly if removal is also a rather simple, non-obstructive, and cost-effective (in terms of manpower and time). To date, there have been no such improvements accorded the industry.
The primary object of this invention is therefore to provide an easy and simple procedure for replacing and/or removing cylindrical treatment articles from fabric treatment apparatuses. It is thus an additional advantage of this invention to provide tubular treatment articles which are substantially hollow, and thus lightweight, yet provide a sufficiently solid surface for desired fabric finishing. Another object of this invention is to provide a method of easily removing such lightweight tubular fabric treatment articles from such apparatuses. Accordingly, this invention encompasses a fabric treatment apparatus comprising at least one abrasive treatment tube located on an axis and having two separate ends, wherein a first end is engaged to a beveled drive mechanism, and wherein a second end is engaged to a beveled clamp mechanism, wherein said tube is removed from said fabric treatment apparatus through disengagement of said second end from said beveled clamp mechanism and moving said treatment tube in the axial direction away from said first end. Also, this invention encompasses a fabric treatment apparatus comprising at least one abrasive treatment tube located on an axis and having two separate ends, wherein a first end is engaged to a beveled drive mechanism, and wherein a second end is engaged to a second beveled mechanism which is attached to a coupling mechanism, wherein said tube is removed from said fabric treatment apparatus through disengagement of said coupling mechanism and moving said treatment tube in the axial direction away from said first end.
These and other advantages will be in part apparent and in part pointed out below, particularly within the non-limiting, yet preferred embodiments depicted and described within the accompanying drawings.